Army to sell military hardware to authoritarian Uzbekistan in retreat deal

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Scots Guards with their Jackal assault vehicle in Helmand, AfghanistanPA

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Philip Hammond: said an agreement had been reachedCpl Mike O’Neill RLC/MoD

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Uzbek soldiers near the Friendship Bridge on the border with AfghanistanReuters

Jeremy KellyLashkar Gah

Last updated at 9:50AM, February 8 2013

Britain will sell military hardware to the authoritarian regime in Uzbekistan
in exchange for safe passage for the thousands of vehicles and containers
that are to be brought home from Afghanistan.

Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, said that an agreement had been reached
with the Central Asian nation to allow its roads and railway to be used to
ferry massive quantities of equipment before the end of next year.

He declined to say what equipment the Uzbeks were seeking but suggested that
little would be rejected, despite Uzbekistan’s poor human rights record and
its ranking by Transparency International as the